rainbowlounge | The Villa Is Open

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roleplay: open

The Villa Is Open

Zephyr had a plan. "We are gonna make you the best electric milkshake that ever was!"

"Or will be!" Pip joined in, clapping her hands over her head as she danced along before him and Roa and generally got in the way of where they were trying to walk.

This gave Zephyr plenty of excuse to pause at the end of the hall and make himself a sweeping gesture. "In the historya... ah..." one that should have ended with him banging his hand on the wall.

Except for the part where the applicable wall had disappeared and not in the usual behold the busted drywall kind of way. It was just gone. Likewise, the hallway and the entirety of Sky Plaza.

Zephyr stood on some low, sweeping stone steps. That happened to be outside, while just a moment before been /inside/ and headed to the kitchen. "OK, what the hell?"

Roa took in the sudden sky all golden up the flanks of the villa before them and held her finger to her lips in curiosity. "I don't know, actually." Then, she attempted to walk down the way they had come. This got her over the steps and almost to the spray from the fountain in the drive before it became quite apparent merely turning around wasn't going to accomplish much besides dampening her shoes. Back up she went. "This *looks* like where they held the last Court of the Manor."

"You dunno?" his next sound was an odd one, not a moan and not a laugh, and awfully feline besides. "Yeah, that's not freakin me out or nothin. Dun you know everythin?"

"Zephyyyr. Same to you."

"You guys," interjected Pip, her bare toes rapping on the stone. "Think this's kinda the same thing happened to Seb."

"Hm?" Zephyr craned himself her way, and their hands tangled together, wires all a-flash.

"Mm!"

"Mnhn."

"Nnn~."

"Well, I like your theory so far," Roa nodded. Mostly, she wasn't being silly right back at their latest ridiculous display. Mostly. "Happened to Siebenkas...?"

"Yeah, he had this dream," the elder of the two evokers almost began to explain, digits working.

Whatever he meant to coax out of the recollections between them, Pip took over, swaying as she did. "He thinks was a dream, but is totally notta dream. I know. I touched him thinkin about it an it was all wrong fora dream. Still didn't make any sense, but not the same kinda way dreams do."

"Also, Seb never dreams he's nekkid. Fun fact."

("So useful, too," Roa remarked, quite to herself.)

"But, he walked outta his bathroom an alla a sudden, he was in this bar in Old New York an there were all these other people an he was almost kinda sorta mebbe flirtin with this mob boss lady over gin an tonic and then there was this real cute muddy guy. Seb didn't think he was so cute, but I did. He got way more distracted by the other lady evoked with her eyes and the booze was good an there were pretty blond polyamourous peeps bonkin in the restroom an... an... an..."

Her not so little description might have gone on another few hours, except that Zephyr reached around with his unoccupied hand and tickled her. The way they'd tangled up together, she must have known it was coming.

Which left Roa to conclude Pip wanted tickled more than she wanted to discuss any washroom adventures. "On one hand, that sounds very much like a dream to me. On the other, if there's some sort of precedent for people in our manor suddenly disobeying all known laws of physics. And you're not playing some sort of elaborate prank."

"Hey! I had my heart set on givin you your first electric milkshake an that's not somethin I'd go back on for any money." Next thing she did know with any certainty, Zephyr had play staggered over, clutching at his shirt, "'m so disappointed it /huuurts/."

"Well, you can make it up to me when the universe goes back to normal."

Grin for the time being, too.

"It is going to go back to normal?"

"Did last time. 's why we still gotta Seb an notta portal to someplace called Dan's," said Pip.

"Alright, so why don't we...?"

"Make the besta it?"

"Yes!" Roa swung from Zephyr's grasp. He only then reached for her, trying to find that place in her moments where the best meant [concrete] he could play after and with her. As it was, he missed her as she skipped the villa steps instead, swirling her skirt in her hands and calling back after: "We're going to get company, right?"

"Woul, that'd be nice, but if not," he shrugged. "We get blitzed an watch the stars come out." A quick little sigh and a pop of his shoulder after, he followed.

Pip watched the space in the sky where the clouds should have been. The end of her nose twitched. "We're so gettin company. Can smell it, almost. Somethin's zactly not right out there." Laughing then, she blew past them both and straight through the doors.

Stuff you actually need to know available in this direction:
http://rainbowlounge.dreamwidth.org/18653.html

Have fun!

ETA: This post has not been up thirty-six hours and we officially have more than 500 comments. SO I SUPPOSE THIS ISN'T FUN AT ALL AMMIRITE? XD

ETA II: I am really, really touched that everyone wants to take care of the deceased fellow in the pool. I'm sure he appreciates it (he didn't even have a name in the story where he first appeared ;_;). But, alas, there was only one of him and he's currently being handled. He may be installed in a bedroom shortly, and should that happen, I will give him his own thread for poking purposes.

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"Oh, thank you," said Roa.

It was just so genuine, the way Setusko said that, said anything, really. So full up of meaning.

So, she didn't mind at all, telling the other woman a little more about Meloe than she would have ventured with a stranger otherwise. "It was very green and very warm and it rained almost every day. Everybody lived together in a village that had two paths- one into the jungle and one down to the sea. We didn't grow any flowers just for themselves, but we didn't really have to. If we wanted flowers, all we had to do was gather them out of the jungle. That was the only time most of us ever got to ourselves." And she smiled, remembering the anthropologists trying so hard to stalk after moody children who wanted nothing more than to hide in moss, despite their diffident smiles.

"And we had things a little like this, but mostly what we're find out there. It's strange- I can't find the words they use for them here, so I only know what we called them."

Setsuko smiled, fascinated. "That sounds lovely," she told Roa. "It's very much like the home of a good friend of mine, except I don't think there was a jungle...there was the ocean, though. As for me, I lived inland, and for the longest time all the flowers I saw were in gardens much like this one. But I was ill, often, as a child, so walking in them was delightful anyway."

She tilted her head when Roa mentioned the language barrier. "Would you mind telling me what they're called? I do love to learn about new things."

Pip's swayed back and forth, her town apparently between nodding and shaking her head, "Is funny you mention that cause most senses, they're like movies to me. An a movie can totally getcha in the end with its movie stuff, but your time thing. You're kinda blurry cause we just met an all, but the time thing's like extra blurry an I can kinda /taste/ it too."

Her tongue flickered in the corner of her mouth as she chased down one particularly juicy looking strand in that web. When she got there, however there and getting worked, she found only this dusty mirror of herself looking down at her cel phone as it rang and it rang. Some ways, she answered and some ways she did not. Some ways she flung it at the window in the common room.

Pip frowned. She liked her phone. Why would she do that?

(OOC: she's only seeing a little bit of the associated day, but that's the first time she kills anyone. And it's someone she knows, so that's him desperately trying to call her.)

(OOC: Sorry, kinda confused here. Is this Roa or Pip?)

(OOC: that was I posted the wrong thing. Sorry about that!)

"I should have told you that straight off!" Roa laughed a little at how simply, and yet, how wonderfully, distracted she'd gotten. "This is Passiflora incarnata, or purple passionflower, although I also overheard someone call it a maypop, though I'm not sure how common that is. The first name's in a very old language and is used by people of science to describe the species. The second, well, it sounds very romantic, but it means the other kind of passion, apparently. The flower itself is supposed to be symbolic of a holy person's suffering."

Really, it seemed a bit much for a pretty, curly, purple flower that would only ever live for a few days for a few days.

"It reminds me a little of what we used to call a miele, but those only grow on fallen trees and they don't have so much /fluff/ to them."

(OOC: No problem! I'm fighting both jet lag and a cold, so I thought I'd check and see if it was just my addled brains.)

"Hmmm." Setsuko reached out with a finger and touched the passionflower's petals. "We have a flower called ajisai in my country that blooms from pink to blue, with this shade of purple in between," she said. "Although it doesn't really have as profound a meaning as this one: it simply heralds the beginning of summer. Sometimes you can see bushes with flowers of different hues. It's really quite pretty."

"What do miele look like? Do they have any scent? Can you use them for anything, or are they simply to be enjoyed as they are?"

Why didn't she get to have conversations like this at the manor?

Well, that question answered itself. She lived with a bunch of spooks, not a bunch of botanists. And it turned out there was quite a difference!

Ok, perhaps that wasn't a surprise, but moving on.

"Oh, that sounds lovely. If we have those here, they would have just stopped blooming."

But, past that little sigh, Roa reached back into her memories and plucked after her favorite miele tangle. "Miele are easiest to find by their scent. It's musky and bright and thick. They bloom during the drier months- if water falls on the petals, they turn brown. The plants creep when they are young, but they become stiff in time and when they have no leaves, the old ones look like bird cages. They are thick with petals, and twist in the center like some roses, so it would be easy to make, ah, flower necklaces out of them if there were ever enough at once."

(OOC: Oh gosh. A cold yet! Feel better! Also- Roa appears to be describing some sort of gardenia subspecies.)

A place where ajisai didn't bloom? "Does it not rain here often?" Setsuko asked. That probably wasn't the case, given the lush appearance of the garden, but the bushes came into bloom mostly during the rainy season.

"I've never heard of flowers that brown when water falls on them. Do they mainly live on sunshine, then?" she asked. "We do have strongly scented flowers in Yashima, such as the plum and the gardenia. The gardenia seems the most similar to your miele, since the scent is very strong, but I've never seen any that are purple."

(OOC: Yeah, Sudafed and lots of water. Apologies in advance if things get loopy with me!)

"Well, we're between rainy seasons," said Roa. And allegedly, the monsoon was late, though she hadn't yet been treated to the excitement that was a smeary black city downpour. Only the repeated growly threats of one. "I've only ever seen miele growing on fallen trees and we were always told that was because they like the rot. But, you've got me wondering- perhaps it was because the holes in the canopy let in more sunshine."

Either way, she smiled this sweet and rueful touched sort of way. "I wish I had one to show you! But, there's none in this garden, though I did see some aloai by the peach trees."

Setsuko nodded. The air was rather moist out here, which meant rain was probably going to come sooner or later. "That's very interesting," she said. "I've learned that decaying things often provide fertile soil. Perhaps where you came from was moist enough that any additional water was too much. In that case, the sunshine would definitely be welcome."

"Aloai? Are those similar to miele?"

"Oh, they're much different," said Roa. "Miele have hardly any pistil, but in an aloai, those are long and graceful. And Aloai only have a few great, big petals and..."

She was so sure she'd seen one nearby. With a gentle pat to the feathered ends of the petals, Roa let the passionflower relax. Sure she had not troubled it too much, she dashed a few cobbles down the path, beckoning for Setsuko to follow.

Which she did. They didn't have to go too far before they passed along another small hedge and into a copse of the flowers Roa remembered.

And there were flowers. Everywhere. Red and gold and white and shocking pink. The evening air was thick with them and butterflies that had come to dance between before heading off to bed.

She brushed some leaves away to read the marker there. "The common name here 'hibiscus'."

It was hard to follow Roa in her kosode, but Setsuko managed well enough, and the reward was great: a grove of the largest flowers she'd ever seen, wide as one's hand, with colors from crimson red to snowy white, and most surprising, a pink so bright she couldn't look at it head-on.

"I-I've never seen such things before," she told Roa. "May--may I see one?"

Ah. Maybe she shouldn't have made Setsuko chase her. But, it was worth it in the end. The look on the other woman's face- of so absolutely being there and making herself remember.

For Aloai. Although, it was a spectacular swirl in the path, this place where they had all been left together. It reminded her of so much. The gardens in the jungle. Of taking the anthropologists there, the girls from other islands too. Of the tang in their tea once they were all gone away. And now, she would remember too. Setsuko as she was right then.

Roa plucked her switchblade out and went to the place where the great, big red blossoms lingered together. "I think there's more than enough of these to share," she said as she nipped one off and then another. One she gave to Setsuko. The other she kept for herself and slipped behind her ear.

Setsuko's face lit up with sheer delight when Roa gave her the hibiscus. What a beautiful, unique gift!

"Thank you so much," she said, genuinely touched. She held it in her cupped hands, marveling at the large petals that easily covered her fingers.

It almost made Roa's cheeks warmed, seeing the other woman so delighted by the flower she offered her. She almost wondered if she's stumbled across some other gesture in Setsuko's culture. She knew though she was happy and that made Roa happy too.

"I'm so happy you like it!" and why then, why hold back the delighted chirp in her voice. "They always made me happy too. And you know, you don't have to miss them when they're gone. You can make tea out of them

"You can?" Setsuko blurted, before covering her mouth post-haste. "Do tell me more. Does this tea have any health benefits?"

Oh, she was learning so much today! She almost didn't want to leave this place with this wondrous garden and lovely company.

"Yes, you can," Roa answered. "It's dark red and it's very tangy and it lowers your blood pressure, but you have to drink a lot of it. Not to say that's hard."

In fact, the thought of a tall, icy glass had her mouth watering.

And Setsuko seemed genuinely interested.

And speaking of Setsuko, she was probably hot in her robes. Lovely as they were, they couldn't have been designed for summers such as this evening.

"I might be able to get us some. At the very least, there must be something inside you've never tried. So, would you like to join me for tea?"

(OOC: this thread is adorable and you should feel adorable.)

Setsuko had no idea what "blood pressure" was, but it sounded good for one's health, anyway. And tangy...she'd never had tea that was tangy (perhaps refreshingly bitter), but it sounded intriguing, nonetheless.

"I would be happy to," she replied. The heat, if she had to be honest, was beginning to be too much for her--Dalriada was currently in mid-autumn, and here was definitely summer.

(OOC: hee! thank you! I do try.)

"Then, this way, please," laughed Roa, swishing her skirt the way she meant to lead Setsuko back that path; and she did. The garden closer the villa was not so empty as when she had been there last, but dotted with people and their drinks and people alone and couples playing that they were alone under the boughs. Roa wondered- had they come together, or were people actually hooking up at...

The look she got at Zephyr smooshed up at the bar with some guy she certainly did not know answered that question. Well, at least she wasn't the only one having a good time and Pip certainly wasn't about to be distracted by hair scritches and silly drink orders from her father.

In fact, Pip was really more interested in a bottle of triple sec that just didn't want to open no matter how many times she thumped it on the counter.

Roa dusted off two seats at the bar, offered one to her companion, and gave the stubborn cap a good twist that finally loosened the sugar crystals around the rim. Besides got her a moment to offer Pip a quick recap of events via her fingertips.

"Setsuko, this is Pip. She's the daughter of one of my business associates."

Specifically the one who was making out with someone from a time not his own at the other end of the bar, but moving on.

"Also, my apprentice and tonight's bartender."

Pip grinned. "Nice ta meetcha."

The inside of the manor was so large it could have been a palace, Setsuko thought. The room Roa led her into was strange and lavish all at once, with groups of sparkling crystals suspended in mid-air, ceilings so high and wide that they seemed to touch the sky, and people sitting in couches so soft they seemed to sink immediately into them.

And then there was the girl serving their drinks--ordinary enough but for the silver lines running up and down her bare arms.

She bowed her head in greeting. "The pleasure is mine."

And +1 resistance to Zephyr.

Well, not that Roa particularly minded that courtier being himself, but she did understand this skill to be somewhat unusual in the city at large, valuable when it did surface, and currently leading her to wonder if strapping Setsuko to her back would result in both of them landing back at the manor or both of them ending up in Setsuko's universe.

In the mean time and matters which did not concern straps of any kind, Pip returned the bow with a curtsy of her own, despite her boisterous greeting otherwise.

"You haven't seen any hibiscus tea back there, have you?" Roa asked, gesturing towards the back room of the bar.

"Sure have. I think. Sorta. Cold kind, definitely. Hot kind, 'm prettty sure."

"Can you bring both if you have them?"

And not even an answer to that. Pip had gone in a flash, albeit one shouting: "Heeeeeeeeeeeeere tasty flowers."

After seeing Pip's curtsy and the quick way she responded to Roa's request, Setsuko decided that although the silver lines were unusual, she was quite well-behaved--if boisterous--for a young girl.

"What did she mean by 'cold kind'?" she asked Roa. "I was under the impression that all tea was hot."

"Just that," Roa replied with a smile. "Since it get so hot in the summer, and hibiscus tea is tangy, someone got the idea to serve it cold. It's probably better than it sounds."

Cold tea had to be on that certain gourmet level of disconcerting to someone who had never heard of such a thing. Like vanilla shrimp or gazpacho. Although, that did raise some questions beyond those things.

"But, you don't have to drink it if you don't care for it. And if there's anything else you'd like that you don't have."

"I've never heard it explained like that before," Setsuko replied. "Why, my friend told me that drinking hot tea made you sweat, and made you cooler that way."

Certainly, the idea of cold tea was...new, and strange, especially since in Huaxia and Yashima tea was hot by definition. In Dalriada ale was traditionally cool or lukewarm, and wine could be any temperature.

"Oh, I'd be happy to try some," she told Roa. "The concept's just very new to me, that's all. Everything here is, come to think of it."

Roa smiled once more, fingers against the hibiscus in her hair. Habit and all, she'd perched it behind her ear that young girl who doesn't want to be alone kind of way that would have stood for so much more on Meloe.

So, what she said next, she meant. "I only came here a few months ago myself. I know it can be a bit much to get used to, but it's exciting too and in the end you never know who you'll meet that makes all of that excitement worth it."

Her fingers strayed down her cheek and she came to do then as they did in the city- lean against the bar, resting on her palm. Not the first time, but it was really more comfortable than it looked. "Is it summer in ajisai -land too?"

The Villa Is Open

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